1. Field of Endeavor
The information disclosed in this patent relates to retractable covers that may be provided as a camper shell to enclose a load-carrying portion of a vehicle.
2. Background Information
Camper shells, sometimes known as toppers or caps, typically are mounted atop a pickup truck's rear bed to protect truck cargo from the elements. These shells generally cover the entirety of the pickup truck bed and may be large enough to be used for camping. However, camper shells most often are used for utility and cargo storage purposes.
There is a wide variety of camper shells available on the market for most pickup trucks. Some camper shells are hard tops fixed to a truck bed and others expand away from the sides of the vehicle. Still others are raised and lowered by pneumatic cylinders. A problem with most camper shells is that they are difficult to remove to permit full open use of a truck bed. It usually takes several people to remove and handle the heavy shell. Once the shell is removed, their large size makes them difficult to store.
Some inventors have attempted to avoid the need to remove the shell to have open access to the truck bed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,603 teaches a telescopic camper cap having individual segments. The individual segments may be telescoped into each other to allow some open use of a truck bed. Although a single individual more easily may handle the individual segments of a telescopic camper cap, a problem with this telescopic camper cap is that it does not permit substantially full access to the bed to haul larger or bulky cargo. What is needed is an apparatus and method to overcome these and other problems.